Paper Tree

As a "landscape photographer", I wanted to work with a single tree for this project. On a journey into my shooting lands, I was compelled by the shape of a dead tree and immediately I felt the urge to wrap the tree. While wrapping the tree with toilet paper it became a process of mummifying the tree.

The white tree becomes iconic as it is separated from the rest of the landscape. It is no longer part of where it came from; the tree now takes on a new presence as the dominating object in the scene, a white anomaly among the natural trees. The act of wrapping the tree in paper almost aims to preserve it while also bandaging the tree in it's own material. I have taken the mischievous act of toilet-papering and turned it into a caring healing act. There is a sense of healing and an attempt to breathe new life into a dead tree by taking it on a journey before its final stage in death. This raises the question; as a society, is nature viewed as a disposable commodity?

The test polaroids, taken on 8 year expired polaroid, display the process of holding a wrapped tree in these environments. The person holding the tree looks up at it, further emphasizing its monument like status.